Covenant Strike
by Bandit666
Summary: (AU) The story of a trio of SPARTAN IIIs protecting the Earth from a Covenant attack.
1. Chapter 1

[text]=covenant language  
  
-EARTH {Spartans}-  
  
I stood at the intersection of two large corridors. Shawn was in the hall looking for ammo, with William watching his back. Suddenly a bolt of superheated plasma flew by, and I could smell tangy vapor from the melted wall. I heard the scream of an injured marine. "Shit! Where did the marines come from?!" Shawn yelled.  
I ran around the corner to find three marines fighting to protect an injured officer. Against a blue Elite and four grunts, I didn't think they had much chance. I told William to protect the officer. When one of the marines turned away from the Elite to kill a grunt, Shawn opened fire on the Elite with his assault rifle. William shoved a frag down a grunt's throat, and shoved it down the corridor. Seeing this, I yelled "Fire in the hole!," and dove for cover.  
One of the marines was temporarily blinded by the flash, so he never saw the black special forces Grunt that opened fire with a glowing fuel rod cannon. The plasma vaporized the marines, and I was sent flying down the hallway.  
  
-EARTH ORBIT {Chachar}-  
  
Chachar, a grunt who had assisted the fall of Reach and escaped the destruction of Halo, was resting thousands of miles from the planet his brothers were attacking, contemplating recent events. Back on Halo, he had learned of a mysterious green-armored human, and had stolen a Seraph fighter, filled it with supplies, and fled to the most recent known destination of the Covenant main fleet: the human homeplanet, Earth.  
  
Suddenly his radar started beeping, jerking him out of his thoughts. He twisted his seat around to look at it, finding that something. . .no, somethings were approaching. Very big somethings.  
  
Considering where he was, he knew they could only be one thing. [A human armada! They must have sensed my ship!] He turned the fighter away from the ships, and opened the throttle, heading straight out to. . .[Earth? Wait. . . If Earth is in front of me, then the ships are headed towards it, and that could mean. . . ]  
  
Playing his hunch, Chachar turned his Seraph fighter around - just in time to see three frigates and a carrier drop out of slip space. All of which were Covenant forces.  
  
-EARTH {Marines}-  
  
"Master Chief has stolen a Covenant ship it to try and find the Covenant home planet," reported Lieutenant Aegis Hernandez to his men, "And he's left us to hold the fort. That means we need to wipe out every last covenant sonuvabitch we can find. Now move out!"  
  
The marines ran up a hill, finding a dead gold-armored Elite, but no weapons around it. They would have assumed a Grunt had stolen the plasma sword, but there were no Grunt tracks. All they could see were large oval imprints in the ground. They decided to follow them, because, as Lieutenant Hernandez put it, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend. A golden Elite is one of my worst enemies, so whoever took it out will soon be one of my best friends."  
  
After some time following the tracks, they came upon the end of a battle. Two figures, both well over six feet tall, were battling an entire covenant platoon. . .and winning. One of them, wielding a plasma sword and Jackal shield, swiftly eviscerated, bisected, and otherwise slaughtered the nearest covenant warriors, while the other one was busy throwing a hunter shield at a group of Grunts, and then crushing an Elite's head with one hand, the other hand occupied by a Fuel Rod cannon. Suddenly, a Grunt's torso exploded outward as if from a close-range shotgun burst, but there was no-one behind him to have taken the shot. Things continued this way for the next ten minutes, with the marines to awed to even think of offering assistance.  
  
After the battle, Hernandez signaled that his platoon get into firing squad position and finally spoke up: "Identify yourselves immediately, or be fired upon!"  
  
The figure with the sword looked up with obvious surprise. "I am Petty Officer Craig." He gestured to the other figure. "This is Special Operative William, and this-" At this point, he gestured into empty space. "This is Stealth Operative Shawn. We are part of the SPARTAN III program." 


	2. Chapter 2

-COVENANT FLAGSHIP: PRE-ORDAINED VICTORY {Chachar} -  
  
[Wow. The Prophets really want to take Earth.] Chachar gazed in reverence at the thousands of commando class units in the loading bay. During his walk to the Prophet's chamber, Chachar had seen an uncountable number of top-class units. Now, as he reached the door, three black skinned and armor- less Elites activated the door control, and Chachar could see the outlines of a pair of stealth Hunters.  
[Why do you guys always come in pairs?] His query was answered by silence, making him wonder if they were really there.  
The giant door rose slowly, stopping at the point where Chachar could walk through, about 3.5 [feet]. He went through on all fours, and heard a sharp command.  
[Stop.] He obeyed. [You are the Grunt known as Chachar?] Chachar nodded. [Your report implies that you escaped the destruction of Halo. How?] Chachar remained silent, having not been ordered to speak. [Ah, good, you know the protocols one must observe when speaking to a Prophet. You will now answer my question.]  
Chachar explained how he had taken a Seraph, and the Prophet nodded in approval.  
[You show a strange initiative. Judging by our reports, all of our other Grunt troops simply ran around in circles. The council will now confer.] The Prophet left Chachar alone in the audience chamber, and retreated to a private section of the ship. After five long minutes, he returned.  
[Due to your decision-making skills and ship piloting abilities, you have been chosen to lead a special task force of Commando class Elites. You will pilot a camouflaged frigate, and take this task force to the Earth with the expressed purpose of finding a sector for the main Covenant invasion. You are dismissed.]  
As soon as Chachar left the audience room, he let out a disgusted sigh. All he'd wanted after the very stressful escape from Halo was a nice bed, and a few [days] of rest. Instead, the Prophets had given him a suicide mission. Chachar knew what a task force was: sixteen Elites. Sixteen, against everything Earth had to offer. In Chachar's mind, 'rest' was not synonomous with 'suicide'. However, the Prophets had given their commands, and, like it or not, Chachar was [religion]-bound to follow them.  
  
-EARTH {Spartans}-  
  
When we finished the introductions, Lieutenant Hernandez walked over to me.  
"I didn't know there even was a SPARTAN III program."  
My response was nothing but the truth. "It's top secret. The SPARTAN IIs got Dr. Halsey, the scientist leading the project, off of Reach just before the Covenant began glassing the planet. After that, she came to Earth, and initiated a second Human Upgrade Project. This HUP used more subjects, all of which were volunteers. They used 200 men and women, instead of the 80 used in the original experiment, but only 84 survived the initial upgrades. 38 of these went insane from being able to think at each other through the IM (Instant Messaging, or Telepathy) system, and 8 more died or went into comas when their brains grew into the IM power supply.  
William, our bomb specialist, is the only survivor of an extra strength augmentation, performed on 9 of the survivors, that lets him beat a hunter at arm wrestling. However, it completely destroyed his speech capabilities. He can still think in words, but he can't speak them.  
"Right now, the 30 SPARTAN IIIs that survived the entire procedure are spread over the Earth covering covenant invasion points."  
Lieutenant Hernandez took a few moments to think about what I'd said, and decided to take my word for it. "I believe you, but would you put the sword away? You're starting to scare my men."  
I pressed the smaller of the two buttons, and the glowing blade dissipated.  
Aegis looked up at me. "How did you get out here, anyway?"  
"We were fighting in an abandoned town, but when we wiped out most of the enemy troops, the covenant decided to set off a bomb. William smelled it, and told us to evacuate. After that, we left town and began to search for someone who could show us where to get supplies.  
"We met and killed a hunter pair, which is where William got his weapons. Shawn ripped the camouflage off a gold Elite, and I took it's sword. I think it's obvious enough where I got my shield."  
Aegis checked his ammo belt, and then started speaking again.  
"We have learned of a nearby landing. There have been no reports of Earth ships being called down in this sector, so we have to assume it's covenant. Judging by the size, it's frigate class."  
I cut him off, already knowing what he would say. "You need it destroyed, and we seem to be the only ones available who have more than one one-thousand of a percent chance of success." I looked at William, and he nodded, while Shawn gave a double comm-click. "You can count on us."  
He nodded, looking relieved. "All right, then. Here's the deal: Through a canyon you can get a clear view of. . ." 


End file.
